Gallup, state police take bite out of graffiti

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Gallup Police nabbed two more alleged graffiti vandals Saturday.

Anthony Martinez, 15, and André Smith, 16, were spotted at 10:30 p.m. by nearby witnesses scaling an alleyway light pole in order to access the rooftops of buildings on the 200 block of W. Historic Route 66. As Gallup Police Officer Mark Spencer approached the alleyway, Smith quickly descended the pole and fled. Spencer chased Smith out the alley and onto Second Street, then south to Coal Avenue and finally west toward the intersection of Third Street and Coal Avenue. There a New Mexico State Police officer flanked Smith and confronted him. The officer pulled his sidearm and ordered him to the ground. Smith was cuffed and arrested.

Meanwhile, back at the rooftop, a Gallup Fire Department ladder truck had arrived. Spencer returned and accompanied Officer Valerie Wilson, her canine and officer Andrew Antone Jr. to the rooftop, where Martinez was eventually found hiding beneath a ventilation shaft.

Fresh, dripping white paint was found against the west wall of the Eagle Café, according to Spencer’s report. The spray can also was found and taken for evidence.

Martinez and Smith were booked into Gallup McKinley Juvenile Detention Center on charges of criminal trespass, unlawful graffiti and evading police.